h them by taste, or bouquet. Mr. Bale, the foreman said,
had given strict orders that he was not to begin tasting, at
present.

Three days before Christmas, one of the clerks brought him down
word that Mr. Bale wished to see him in the office, at five
o'clock.

During the three, months he had scarcely spoken to his uncle. The
latter had nodded to him, whenever he came into the cellar; and had
regularly said, "Well, Robert, how are you getting on?"

To which he had, as regularly, replied, "Very well, uncle."

He supposed that the present meeting was for the purpose of
inviting him to dine at Philpot Lane, on Christmas Day; and
although he knew that he should enjoy the festivity more, at
Hackney, he was prepared to accept it very willingly.

"I have sent for you, Robert," Mr. Bale said, when he entered his
office, "to say that your sister has written to ask me to go down
to spend Christmas with her, at Portsmouth. As her husband's
regiment is on the point of going abroad, I have decided on
accepting her invitation and, for the same reason, I shall take you
down with me. You will therefore have your box packed, tonight. I
shall send down a cart to fetch it, tomorrow. You will sleep here
tomorrow night, and we start the next morning."

"Thank you very much, uncle," Bob said, in delight; and then,
seeing that nothing further was expected of him, he ran off to join
Mr. Medlin, who was waiting for him outside.

"What do you think, Mr. Medlin? I am going down to spend Christmas
at my sister's."

"Ah!" the clerk said, in a dull unsympathetic voice. "Well, mind
how you walk, Mr. Robert. It does not look well, coming out from a
place of business as if you were rushing out of school."

Bob knew well enough that it was no use, whatever, trying to get
his companion to take any interest in matters unconnected with
business, at present; so he dropped into his regular pace, and did
not open his lips again, until they had passed the usual boundary.

Then Mr. Medlin said, briskly, "So you are going down to your
sister's, Bob!"

"Yes, that will be first rate, won't it? Of course, I went down in
the summer to Canterbury, and hardly expected to go again this
year. As I have only been three months here, I did not even think
of going.

"It will be the last holiday I shall have, for some time. You know
Carrie said, when she wrote to me a month ago, that the regiment
expected to be ordered abroad soon; and uncle said it is on th